A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Both Chris Matthews and one of his guests talk about Dominionism

Both of these clips are mostly about something else, but Dominionism as an important strain in contemporary right-wing U.S. politics make cameo appearances near their ends.

Although this segment is primarily about the issues President Obama has with Jewish voters and donors and attempts by Republicans such as Rick Perry to exploit any potential rift between the President and a significant portion of the Democratic voter base, it turns into something else near the end. Starting about 7:30, Chris Matthews starts talking about Perry, Bachmann, and Palin as being part of a movement to establish a "Christian theocracy." He then mentions Dominionism about 8:00. He returns to the idea of Christians "taking dominion" just before 9:00.

I was stunned. While I might expect to hear something like this out of Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, I never expected to hear words like these pass the lips of someone who is as much a media insider as Chris Matthews. Apparently, when Matthews read "The Rogue" by his next guest, he encountered these concepts. You can tell that had an effect on him.

Matthews again brings up "Christians having dominion" and "theocracy" about the 4:50 mark. In response, Joe McGinnis talks about the importance of religion in Sarah Palin's political views, which is Dominionist Christianity and how neither she nor the religious movement she belongs to believe in separation of Church and State.

I'm glad someone in the mainstream media is paying attention to Dominionism.